Christmas pictures – fresh snowfall causes chaos in Scotland

Once again a new fall of snow has caused chaos on the roads in Scotland. Yesterday snow fell for about 6 hours and the country’s transport system seemed to grind to a halt. Commuters and drivers are demanding answers as to why local councils never seem to be ready for the snow. It’s amazing in the 21st century that councils cannot get hold of accurate weather forecasts. Every time this happens they say that the snowfall was heavier than they expected . Last week snow started falling on Friday night about 12 o’clock. The gritters started to appear about 2 hours later. Scotland’s transport minister Stewart Stevenson conceded that the weather advice the authorities had been following “did not meet requirements”.

And he warned that it could take some time before the roads were “back to anything approaching normal”.

Some travellers were stuck in their vehicles for more than 15 hours as Scotland bore the brunt of the weather.

A fresh wave of ice and snow left several major routes – including the M8, M9 and A80 – impassable.

Police across the country’s busy central belt warned people not to travel on Tuesday unless it was “absolutely essential” after temperatures plunged as low as -17C (1.4F) and hampered gritting efforts.

The deluge on Monday – which appeared to take the authorities by surprise – saw people sleep in their cars or abandon them as motorways and A roads clogged up.

On Tuesday morning, Strathclyde Police reported that the snow and ice on some roads was breaking the blades on snow ploughs.

Mr Stevenson said that the authorities had been caught out by the severity of the weather.